Oh, The Places You'll Go!

During last school year they had a week celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday. Each day the kids got to dress up based on some fun Dr. Seuss book. One day they wore all green (Green Eggs and Ham), one day they wore creative hats, crazy socks, etc. One day they were to dress up as what they'd like to be when they grow up (Oh, The Places You'll Go). My kids really enjoyed the whole dress-up week. Makenna knew exactly what she wants to be and she immediately asked Dad to bring home a white lab coat and some medical accessories because she wants to be a veterinarian. Shaylie was pretty stumped about what she should be when she grows up. In the past she has always proudly announced that she is going to be a princess when she grows up, so I was surprized that she hesitated. Heaven knows we have no shortage of glamorous princess dresses. When I asked her about it she sniffled, "But Mom, there are no princesses in the real world!" I was so sad - it felt like the end of her little childhood... But she quickly recovered with an idea that was so Shaylie I had to laugh. She said, "But there ARE real rockstars!" And then little Kyler was really stumped. I suggested all the things he'd ever wanted to be... a cowboy, an astronaut, a fireman. None seemed just right. So as a joke I made a suggestion that he ended up going with. He wore his nice church suit and his hair slicked back, and he emptied his allowance money into all his pockets so he jingled. He even put a couple paper dollars in his pockets. Then when anyone asked him what he was, he pulled out the money and said, "I'm a Millionaire!"

You're Gonna Miss This

Where is my other shoe????




This is one of those adorable little rituals which will be forgotten as the children grow, if I don't record the memory. This whole school year Carter has had trouble making it out the door on time because of this cute little game between him and Shaylie. Every morning she sneaks into his closet and finds where Daddy left his work shoes, then hides one or both of them. You'd be amazed how creative a five-year-old can be! Sometimes he finds one in the dryer, behind the computer, under a sink, in a flower pot... A time or two she hid them so well Carter never did find them and had to wear other shoes to work. On this particular day it was an easy find in the cat house.

Great Little Brains

Our school's PTA sponsors a Great Brain Project every year. The kids get to do either a research or a science project and then share it with their class and then the parents. They work very hard on these (well, we all do actually) so they like me to take pictures to remember them by.


Shaylie's report was on "Outer Space." She learned the name and order of all the planets and some other big words like constellation, galaxy, and solar system. In her presentation she explained how earth's rotation around the sun gives us day and night and seasons. She learned a bunch as she did this and she was so excited to share it.



Makenna continued her theme of studying our family's pets. Last year she researched cockatoo parrots. This time her theme was Abyssinian cats; her beloved Ginny. She learned that Abyssinians are considered descendents of the ancient Egyptian cats, which they worshiped and painted on walls of tombs, etc. She really enjoyed studying the mythical legends surrounding Eghptian cats. It was also interesting to learn how many of the traits that we thought were 'just Ginny' are actually typical of her breed. Who knew?



The kids don't get any extra credit for these projects, just a "Great Brain" badge and the fun of sharing what they learned. And some late-night one-on-one time with Mom the night before it's due. hee,hee. But I was proud of them - they did great!

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland...

The weekend of McCall's Winter Carnival our family took a fun little day trip. We walked around McCall and enjoyed the amazing talent of so many snow sculptors. Then we headed to Cascade Lake for a little ice fishing. It was a gorgeous sunny winter day and we had a terrific time.





I love the bear peeking into the outhouse. We couldn't resist posing Kyler for this hillarious shot...


You know what they say... you have to kiss a few of these before you find your prince. Luckily I already found a keeper!








I realized I didn't even take any pictures of ice fishing. Carter and a couple of the kids did have poles in holes, but there was a lot more shooting, playing, and goofing going on. They would have paid better attention if the fish were biting, but it was an off day for fish I guess. Lots of fun playing on the ice, though.

Chinese New Year

I always meant to be one of those moms who plans cute little projects to do with my kids. And I do try, but it doesn't happen as often as I would like. But this year I found some time to play around with my two youngest on the afternoon of Chinese New Year. Carter and I both having served Asian missions, this holiday has a some special meaning. (Actually, it has meaning on two levels, because our first date also coincidentally happened on Chinese New Year and we went to eat Chinese food. The restaurant gave our whole group free drinks, and I pretended not to know how to use chopsticks because Carter was so cute trying to teach me.)

The kids and I made a nifty Chinese dragon and some lanterns. We hung them up over the table and we ate dinner with chopsticks that night.

Go Team!!

Shaylie was thrilled when I announced that I had signed her up for Columbia High School's mini cheer camp! Seriously, I think she may have hyperventelated a little.

She got to go to the high school and practice with the REAL cheerleaders three afternoons one week. They taught them several chants, some cute tumbling, and a dance routine. Then Friday night she wore her "cheerleading" t-shirt to the Columbia varsity basketball game and helped cheer! With all the mini cheerleaders she performed the half-time entertainment. It was the cutest thing you ever saw, and she couldn't wipe the smile off her little face.


Here they are dancing to "Wild Thing."


Our team is what? Dynamite!
Our team is what? Dynamite!
Our team is tick, tick, tick, tick, BOOM! Dynamite!


Shaylie is here on the left, holding up the bottom of the pyramid.

Christmas, 2010

I am creating a slideshow for our Christmas holiday. It was filled with wonderful family memories, but I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Kyler also had his 7th birthday while we were with all the family at the cabin. So he enjoyed a really big birthday party. As you can see, he came up with his own creative approach to blowing out the candles...





Happy seventh birthday, Kyler, we love you!!

November 2010

As my avid blog-followers (hee,hee) may have noticed, I've had some technological difficulties getting new material onto the blog for the last...oh, five months. But I've figured out a new way to get my pictures off the silly camera and should be back in business. I don't know if anyone has missed our posts, but I've missed posting. And while I am positive that no one on the planet still cares to hear about the Andrews' holiday season, I'm posting it anyway for the sake of the memory book I plan to create from our blog. So please bear with me while I scramble to bring this back up to speed.

I think it is so adorable each Thanksgiving when my kindergarteners work so hard and make cute little Pilgrim and Indian costumes, then have a big Thanksgiving Feast at school. I helped out in Shaylie's classroom that day and I got to head up the making of babyfood-jar-butter. So fun! I wished I'd had my camera at school for the feast.



We enjoyed our family's "Thanksgiving feast" up at the Andrews' cabin. They are incredibly generous and sweet to allow us to use it. Mom and Bob joined us. Mom and I paused to admire all our hard work before it was gobbled up by a pack of hungry turkeys.



One main memory I have of this Thanksgiving is the intimate candle-lit eating atmosphere, as we were having some electrical problems.





Neil and Sara Adams joined us later with their cute girls, and we had some good fun playing out in the snow while the men were off hunting. They managed to come back with some good stories, too, something about bullet-proof elk that fake dead and then streak off into the sunset.








Grandma gave Makenna her very first knitting lessons. She thought it was a lot of fun, and Grandma said she really has a knack for it.



And finally, my dear Jayden Boy turned 13 during the Thanksgiving weekend. Here he is being mobbed by his adoring brothers and sisters and showing off his new gift. Jayden, we love you!!

Jayden's First Big Game Hunt!

Jayden is a proud kid this Fall. Last year he turned twelve just a little too late to do any hunting, so he has looked forward to this all year. Carter took him up by Stanley. I can't give you much of a narrative, but I know they braved some seriously cold weather and did LOTS of hiking.









Carter said he was a great shot. In fact he shot both the deer and elk right through the heart. Here is the hole in the elk heart to prove it! Congratulations Jayden! I'm sure this is just the first of lots of neat memories with your dad.

Halloween 2010

We hope you all had a fun Halloween! We all love dressing up. We had mild weather for Halloween night, which is always lucky. And Carter and the kids trick-or-treated through the neighborhood with our cousins, the Breshears. So Fun!

Disneyland!!

We were so blessed to be able to take a family trip this Fall - to Disneyland! We've been looking forward to this for a LONG time. And it was wonderful! The drive to California was just fine, which restored my faith in our family unity, since the DVD player didn't work. We were thankful to be able to stop and spend a night with my sister's family in Sparks, Nevada, and also get our first glimpse of her sweet new baby, Aiden. And our extremely shady Craigslist/blackmarket source for discount tickets didn't get us killed or kicked out of the park. (Whew! That's a good story, though)

It was pouring rain our first day at Disneyland. Luckily we'd seen the forecast and came prepared. It ended up being terrific because we started out riding a bunch of indoor rides, like Peter Pan and Toad's Wild Ride. Within a few hours the rain had stopped but the park was still relatively empty so we ran from ride to ride with hardly a wait.



We were so preoccupied with the rides we didn't put much effort into finding characters or standing in line for pictures. But a couple of them found their way to us. Jayden REALLY wanted to get a hug from Princess Jasmine, too, though he wouldn't admit it.








There is a new ride since we were there last, all about Buzz Lightyear, and we get to shoot lasers at targets as we move along. It keeps your score and it is unexpectedly fun. Although it would be hypothetically embarrassing to a dad to find out his son soundly beat his score. (Not mentioning any names...)



Jayden took Brennan under his wing at Disneyland and was kind enough to help haul him around when his little feet got tired. It was so nice not to worry about keeping a hand on my little guy every minute.

Captain Jayden Sparrow.

The Mad Bubba Hatter.

The Happy Hatters.

A nice guy in California Adventures offered to take a picture of our family for us, which would have been a great shot except that he cut poor Shaylie's face out of it. Maybe he thought we had too many kids.



I am in love with all things Disney. Disney movies, Disney music, Disney characters, especially Minny Mouse. I can't get enough. I was in Disney Heaven, but I wasn't the only one. The whole family had a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious time! I asked them to tell me their favorite rides and/or memories. Jayden and Makenna's favorite ride was Space Mountain. (Carter and I agree!) Since we were there in October they "Halloweenified" it with a cool and very scary fiery demon creature that chases you through space. Speaking of Halloween, one of my highlights was the way the whole place was decorated for the holiday, with giant pumpkins carved like Disney characters, and even costumes on a few of the characters as they walked around! Kyler, Shaylie, and even Brennan insisted their favorite ride was the Matterhorn. This surprised me since Brennan cried the first time he got off, and Shaylie would only agree to a second ride if I covered her eyes every time we came to the red-eyed abominable snow monster. But for some reason they couldn't get enough and rode that a dozen times more. Shaylie also loved Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. She called it "That Fast Choo Choo." The kids also mentioned the highlight of seeing the Darth Vader performance, driving their own cars with their own drivers licenses in Autotopia, and Soaring Over California. One of my favorite parts of the day was the Aladin stage performance. The family kindly humored me because I really wanted to see it, but afterward they all agreed it was phenomenal! And I've never laughed so hard as when I watched my wobbly-kneed and scared spitless family make their way out of the Tower of Terror! Holy Cow!! Carter mentioned the 4-D Bug's Life Show, which was also a hoot. But we left there feeling like we needed to check our britches for bugs! And how could I not mention the classics - Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World, Indiana Jones, the Finding Nemo Submarine Ride...Oh! I love Disneyland. When can we go back??

I LOVE this picture! This is how you know you've had all the fun you can stand!


Next we spent a relaxing day playing at Huntington Beach. It was pretty windy, but not enough to discourage the kids from having some fun in the waves. There is a cool pier we walked along, and there was a cute little craft fair to check out.






Kenna found a real, live clam!


The last day of our California Adventure we spent at Sea World. There is nothing like Shamu!


And Sharks...

And incredible shows!


The first time we watched Shamu the kids were so excited to sit right smack in the "Splash Zone." They learned that they weren't bluffing, and that evening when we watched the night-time rock 'n roll Shamu Performance they chose to sit at the top of the stadium! There was also a water rapids ride which involved more water than we expected. I thought Carter was so sweet and generous to stay behind with Brennan, who was too short to ride. But two hours later when he smugly grinned as we were still dripping and shivering, I decided (and I'm quoting Carter here) "I'm not as dumb as I look." If you are heading there anytime soon, my suggestion is that unless it's August, skip Shipwreck Rapids!

One funny moment came early on in the day at Sea World while we sat admiring Shaylie's favorite - the flamingos. I have to preface this by explaining that poor Brennan was terrified of the sights and sounds surrounding Scary Space Mountain, and he spent a decent amount of time waiting out there while we all took turns riding it repeatedly. I explained to him that there was not a real monster in there, it is just "remote control," like the dancing children in Small World or the pretend pirates on the boat ride. That was a concept he could understand and it seemed to comfort him a little. After Brennan thoughtfully watched the flamingos a while he asked me, "Mom? Are these animals all remote control?" Hee, Hee!

I took almost two hundred pictures on this trip, and I've had a hard time not including them all in this blog post. Sorry if it is out of control long. But I couldn't end without the most hilarious ones of all. Remember Splash Mountain? Happy little log ride? Cute story- scenes of Briar Rabbit bunnies and animals? BIG drop? Apparently Carter had forgotten about the drop...



Let's see that a little closer, shall we??



Sorry to tease you, Carter, I couldn't resist. We think you are terrific! Thank you so much for taking us all on this wonderful trip!